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The sequel I have waited for 24 years and it delivers.
While there have been a few games calling themselves Jagged Alliance since Jagged Alliance 2 came out in 1999, this is the first one to call itself directly it's sequel and it earns it. It probably helps that the guy behind the first two games is involved with this one as well.
The plot is simple: you are hired to rescue the kidnapped president of a fictitious African country from a bunch of rebels.
Hire yourself a team of mercenaries and get to work. They do charge by the day so you need to liberate some diamond mines to generate some income along the way. And if you can ambush enemy diamond shipments, that is some extra pay.
Real time exploration - turn based combat
Until combat starts, you can move your team in real time around the map. Patch 1.1 introduced "active pause" which allows you to pause real time to issue commands to your team members. Useful when setting up an ambush on moving enemies or when one of your mercs spot a landmine. Do note that once you give command to shoot, the combat starts.
There are no vehicles (except static ones which can explode if they catch too many bullets) so this is purely infantry vs infantry.
We see the return of Action Points. While XCOM style 2 moves per turn(either attack or move) has become somewhat popular in the last 10 years we go old school with this one. You can do things like pull yourself up to a roof, fire a burst at an enemy and drop back to the ground to take cover - all in one turn. If you have the AP for it. And you can use AP to increase your aiming accuracy. Essential for those head shots.
Resources
The game has 4 important "main" resources:
Money - self explanatory
Meds - you use these to fill up your medkits and first aid kit which you then use to bandage mercs and treat wounds. You can ind herbs in nature when exploring and can gather some meds from them. Or you can find meds as a loot.
Parts - you use these to mod your weapons and repair your equipment. Very important. At first I was annoyed that I can't sell stuff I find for money however it quickly came apparent that you are supposed to scrap the loot you don't need for parts. Because once you start modding guns they tend to run out fast. You use parts even when you fail modding a weapon so having to make two or three tries to succeed can deplenish your parts supply quickly.
Ammo - self explanatory.
Some towns have merchants which sell you these.
A well balanced team. Or two.
You really want to have a team that can cover everything: healing wounds , detecting & disarming explosive traps/mines, repairing your equipment and training militia with leadership.
Militia is useful to keep liberated towns/mines able to defend themselves since the enemy is trying to take them back. And your team may not be able to make it in time everywhere.
You can choose from 36 mercs and you can create one free one (yourself) by navigating the in game browser to I.M.P website and taking a personality quiz. Though you might want to get some regular income before hiring the more expensive ones. And you might find other people willing to work for free during the game.
Though be warned: not every merc gets along with each other. Some might require extra pay to work with a guy they hate or suffer from lower morale if in the same team.
Each merc has a unique skill only they have. For example, Kalyna can do an armor piercing attack with rifles. Barry produces unique explosives every few days.
Merc stats:
Wisdom - helps you learn other things faster, allows you to spot things while exploring, many exploration & conversion checks. The god stat. High WIS rookie can turn into an unstopable killing machine by the end.
Agility - how many action points you have
Dexterity - accuracy (melee and ranged) and instakill chance when doing stealth-attack
Health - self explanatory
Strength - melee damage, throw range, ability to open crates/doors with crowbar, number of your inventory slots
Marksmanship - self explanatory
Explosives - detects mines, reduces mishap chance when throwing explosives around, disarming mines & other explosive traps
Mechanical - lock picking, hacking, disarming mechanical traps, repairing your equipment and most importantly: modding your weapons
Medical - treatment speed, numerous skill checks in quests (checking up bodies for cause of death etc)
Leadership - militia training speed, bonus movement speed on map, morale, teaching others more efficiently
With the exception of Wisdom, you can have a merc skilled in one of the things to train others in it. Wisdom can be increased by having your merc spot things while exploring or by reading wisdom related skill magazine.
Additionally, as you level up, depending on your stats, you can choose perks for your character. Like dodging the first shot in combat that would've hit you. (Annoying when enemy has it).
My team
I created my own merc with the I.M.P site ingame and had him focus on wisdom and leadership then spreading out the rest while ignoring explosives, medical and mechanical. Since none of the cheap rookie mercs have high leadership this seemed like an obvious choice. I also choice the negotiator perk for him.
Kalyna - starts with a rifle, has mechanical skills and some leadership skills to help train militia. Low wisdom hurts though.
Barry - high wisdom, high explosives skill, some mechanical skills and can hack things. If you suspect mines are present, scout with Barry first.
Blood - veteran merc with high agility and dexterity and martial arts skills.
Blood actually turned out to be a favorite of mine - somewhat contrary to the title of this post, he has "infinite throwing" knives item and a special attack where he moves some distance and throws 2 knives at nearest enemy - all for the low low low cost of 3 AP. In the early game this helped a lot. I gave him a camo armor, built his character towards stealth and had him go around the map taking out lone enemies with melee and sniper rifle.
MD - high wisdom, high medical. I ended up giving him a shotgun and using it to open combat against groups of enemies.
Mouse - high agility, high dexterity, comes with a pistol with a silencer. Can move across enemy overwatch areas without triggering them. Dual wielding silenced pistols with armor piercing ammo and making head shots from stealth. I hired her after securing my first mine.
Guns Guns Guns
Pistols, revolvers, shotguns, sub machine guns,assault rifles, rifles, mortars, grenade launchers, RPGs, knives, machetes, fists. And with the exception of melee weapons and RPG, there are several ammo types available for each.
Don't forget to mod your weapons. Slap on a bipod , scope and extended barrel and suddenly your sniper is making head shots all day long, even with ~80 markmanship.
Satellite view
In satellite view you can move between sectors,pass time and order your mercs to do operations while in a sector. These can range from treating wounds, scouting nearby sectors for intel, repairing equipment to training militia. Some, like militia training and R & R can only be done on towns. Intel can reveal secret stashes, weak points and minefields.
Setting up an ambush
Mercs with assault rifles (and one with a sniper rifle) set up their overwatch areas while hidden and when all is set up, sniper takes a shot and the combat starts. Enemy gets a free move at the start like in XCOM but if you have already set up your overwatch areas they drop like flies.
I played this during 1.1 and 1.2 versions. Version 1.3 is supposed to re-introduce the online gun shop from Jagged 2 which might help with ammo issues. While you can have a merc with explosives skill craft ammo it requires parts and gunpowder. As a result, I found that using machine guns made me run out of ammo very fast.
Tips: talk to NPCs several times, especially named ones, even if they don't have specific dialogue window pop up. You get rumors, sometime items, sometime quests.
Minor spoilers - what to use small diamonds for other than sell them
Minor spoiler - what to use archeological artifacts for other than selling them
Medium spoiler - a certain quest can have a time limit depending on your choices
Major spoilers - still somewhat vague
Currently on sale at GOG.com
https://www.gog.com/en/game/jagged_alliance_3
While there have been a few games calling themselves Jagged Alliance since Jagged Alliance 2 came out in 1999, this is the first one to call itself directly it's sequel and it earns it. It probably helps that the guy behind the first two games is involved with this one as well.
The plot is simple: you are hired to rescue the kidnapped president of a fictitious African country from a bunch of rebels.
Hire yourself a team of mercenaries and get to work. They do charge by the day so you need to liberate some diamond mines to generate some income along the way. And if you can ambush enemy diamond shipments, that is some extra pay.
Real time exploration - turn based combat
Until combat starts, you can move your team in real time around the map. Patch 1.1 introduced "active pause" which allows you to pause real time to issue commands to your team members. Useful when setting up an ambush on moving enemies or when one of your mercs spot a landmine. Do note that once you give command to shoot, the combat starts.
There are no vehicles (except static ones which can explode if they catch too many bullets) so this is purely infantry vs infantry.
We see the return of Action Points. While XCOM style 2 moves per turn(either attack or move) has become somewhat popular in the last 10 years we go old school with this one. You can do things like pull yourself up to a roof, fire a burst at an enemy and drop back to the ground to take cover - all in one turn. If you have the AP for it. And you can use AP to increase your aiming accuracy. Essential for those head shots.
Resources
The game has 4 important "main" resources:
Money - self explanatory
Meds - you use these to fill up your medkits and first aid kit which you then use to bandage mercs and treat wounds. You can ind herbs in nature when exploring and can gather some meds from them. Or you can find meds as a loot.
Parts - you use these to mod your weapons and repair your equipment. Very important. At first I was annoyed that I can't sell stuff I find for money however it quickly came apparent that you are supposed to scrap the loot you don't need for parts. Because once you start modding guns they tend to run out fast. You use parts even when you fail modding a weapon so having to make two or three tries to succeed can deplenish your parts supply quickly.
Ammo - self explanatory.
Some towns have merchants which sell you these.
A well balanced team. Or two.
You really want to have a team that can cover everything: healing wounds , detecting & disarming explosive traps/mines, repairing your equipment and training militia with leadership.
Militia is useful to keep liberated towns/mines able to defend themselves since the enemy is trying to take them back. And your team may not be able to make it in time everywhere.
You can choose from 36 mercs and you can create one free one (yourself) by navigating the in game browser to I.M.P website and taking a personality quiz. Though you might want to get some regular income before hiring the more expensive ones. And you might find other people willing to work for free during the game.
Though be warned: not every merc gets along with each other. Some might require extra pay to work with a guy they hate or suffer from lower morale if in the same team.
Each merc has a unique skill only they have. For example, Kalyna can do an armor piercing attack with rifles. Barry produces unique explosives every few days.
Merc stats:
Wisdom - helps you learn other things faster, allows you to spot things while exploring, many exploration & conversion checks. The god stat. High WIS rookie can turn into an unstopable killing machine by the end.
Agility - how many action points you have
Dexterity - accuracy (melee and ranged) and instakill chance when doing stealth-attack
Health - self explanatory
Strength - melee damage, throw range, ability to open crates/doors with crowbar, number of your inventory slots
Marksmanship - self explanatory
Explosives - detects mines, reduces mishap chance when throwing explosives around, disarming mines & other explosive traps
Mechanical - lock picking, hacking, disarming mechanical traps, repairing your equipment and most importantly: modding your weapons
Medical - treatment speed, numerous skill checks in quests (checking up bodies for cause of death etc)
Leadership - militia training speed, bonus movement speed on map, morale, teaching others more efficiently
With the exception of Wisdom, you can have a merc skilled in one of the things to train others in it. Wisdom can be increased by having your merc spot things while exploring or by reading wisdom related skill magazine.
Additionally, as you level up, depending on your stats, you can choose perks for your character. Like dodging the first shot in combat that would've hit you. (Annoying when enemy has it).
My team
I created my own merc with the I.M.P site ingame and had him focus on wisdom and leadership then spreading out the rest while ignoring explosives, medical and mechanical. Since none of the cheap rookie mercs have high leadership this seemed like an obvious choice. I also choice the negotiator perk for him.
Kalyna - starts with a rifle, has mechanical skills and some leadership skills to help train militia. Low wisdom hurts though.
Barry - high wisdom, high explosives skill, some mechanical skills and can hack things. If you suspect mines are present, scout with Barry first.
Blood - veteran merc with high agility and dexterity and martial arts skills.
Blood actually turned out to be a favorite of mine - somewhat contrary to the title of this post, he has "infinite throwing" knives item and a special attack where he moves some distance and throws 2 knives at nearest enemy - all for the low low low cost of 3 AP. In the early game this helped a lot. I gave him a camo armor, built his character towards stealth and had him go around the map taking out lone enemies with melee and sniper rifle.
MD - high wisdom, high medical. I ended up giving him a shotgun and using it to open combat against groups of enemies.
Mouse - high agility, high dexterity, comes with a pistol with a silencer. Can move across enemy overwatch areas without triggering them. Dual wielding silenced pistols with armor piercing ammo and making head shots from stealth. I hired her after securing my first mine.
Guns Guns Guns
Pistols, revolvers, shotguns, sub machine guns,assault rifles, rifles, mortars, grenade launchers, RPGs, knives, machetes, fists. And with the exception of melee weapons and RPG, there are several ammo types available for each.
Don't forget to mod your weapons. Slap on a bipod , scope and extended barrel and suddenly your sniper is making head shots all day long, even with ~80 markmanship.
Satellite view
In satellite view you can move between sectors,pass time and order your mercs to do operations while in a sector. These can range from treating wounds, scouting nearby sectors for intel, repairing equipment to training militia. Some, like militia training and R & R can only be done on towns. Intel can reveal secret stashes, weak points and minefields.
Setting up an ambush
Mercs with assault rifles (and one with a sniper rifle) set up their overwatch areas while hidden and when all is set up, sniper takes a shot and the combat starts. Enemy gets a free move at the start like in XCOM but if you have already set up your overwatch areas they drop like flies.
I played this during 1.1 and 1.2 versions. Version 1.3 is supposed to re-introduce the online gun shop from Jagged 2 which might help with ammo issues. While you can have a merc with explosives skill craft ammo it requires parts and gunpowder. As a result, I found that using machine guns made me run out of ammo very fast.
Tips: talk to NPCs several times, especially named ones, even if they don't have specific dialogue window pop up. You get rumors, sometime items, sometime quests.
Minor spoilers - what to use small diamonds for other than sell them
In Fleatown there is a guy who sells "loot boxes" in exchange for a small diamonds. Get 5. This should guarantee you get a special medicinal item you can use in a quest.
You can also sell them to the priest in Fleatown to increase Fleatown loyalty by 1 per small diamond.
You can also sell them to the priest in Fleatown to increase Fleatown loyalty by 1 per small diamond.
Minor spoiler - what to use archeological artifacts for other than selling them
In Port Cacao, you can give them to your employer who then allows you to dispatch militia to a location of your choice. Faster than spending days training them with your mercs. Though it requires someone to be there to talk to her. You might need to talk to local governor first a few times to get the option.
Medium spoiler - a certain quest can have a time limit depending on your choices
The hospital in the middle of the map can trigger a quest line where you have 10 days to get samples (4 is enough) and these require high medical checks and at least one mechanical check. Doing it with one team can be hard.
Game has two scripted events which can be annoying:
One is call for help where you have to make it in time to a certain place OR you can intercept attack squad going there to buy yourself as much time as you want.
Second is a call to meet someone in refugee camp. Before this triggers, you might want to finish all quests relating to people there.
One is call for help where you have to make it in time to a certain place OR you can intercept attack squad going there to buy yourself as much time as you want.
Second is a call to meet someone in refugee camp. Before this triggers, you might want to finish all quests relating to people there.
Currently on sale at GOG.com
https://www.gog.com/en/game/jagged_alliance_3
